Traitor
by daxy
Summary: Someone in the team is a traitor and after Horatio is shot at a crime scene, everything starts to get out of control and it puts the team in danger.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: Someone in the team is a traitor and after Horatio is shot at a crime scene, everything starts to get out of control and puts the team at risk.**

**AN: Cooper is still in the lab. Kyle, Julia, Yelina and Ray Jr do not exist. Stetler is still in IAB and Rebecca Nevins is still alive.**

_**I apologize to the fans of the character that I made the traitor.**_

**Rated T just to be safe. **

**-I-**

"_Remember what we talked about! You work for me, not Lt. Caine."_ The angry male voice said.

"I know."

"_Things are in motion that can't be undone now. He's too close to us. He needs to be gone and we can't wait any longer. Your job is easy. You just have to stand there and watch." _The man growled.

"I'll do it!"

"_You better or it's you who will die."_ The man growled and hung up.

The other person on the phone sighed heavily. Today Horatio Caine would die.

**-I-**

Calleigh snuggled closer to the body beside her and smiled when she felt Eric's hand caress her cheek. Eric had only been back in the lab for two weeks and everyone was happy to have him back. Calleigh lifted her head to look in to the eyes of her boyfriend. The whole team knew that they were dating and they were pretty sure most of the lab did too. But they were still discrete because of Stetler. Hell would break loose if he found out about their relationship. Both Calleigh and Eric groaned as a phone rang and without checking to see who the phone belonged to; Eric answered.

"Delko."

"_Eric? I called Calleigh._" Natalia chuckled, "_You guys are way past late._"

"What are you talking about?"

"_Wow, you guys must have been up all night. Have you checked the time?_"

Eric glanced over at the clock and quickly got out of bed. It was 10:30.

"Is Horatio mad?" He asked.

Calleigh was also out of bed now and getting dressed faster than a speeding bullet.

"_No, but he told me to let you know that you two have to plan your intimate moments better and not have them in the middle of the night._" Natalia smirked.

"He can't possibly know _why_ we overslept." Eric said.

"_He's Horatio. And quite frankly I agree with him. We all know you want a baby so it's not hard to guess what you did that kept you up all night._" Natalia laughed, "_Just get your butts to work before Stetler finds out._"

"Great. Stetler is the last thing we need right now. We're on our way." Eric sighed and hung up.

Calleigh was already at the door by the time Eric joined her and was putting on his shirt. They went out the door and took one hummer each. When they arrived at the lab they ran inside and bumped in to Ryan with his coffee just outside the elevator.

"Ah! Hot, hot, hot!" Ryan exclaimed and winced as the hot coffee made contact with his shirt and skin.

"Sorry Ryan!" Calleigh called over her shoulder as they hurried to their labs.

Calleigh and Eric shared one last kiss before Calleigh went to the ballistic lab and Eric went to the fingerprint lab, where Walter was already waiting for him. Ryan, in the meantime got permission to go home and change his shirt from Horatio. Ryan muttered as he drove home. It was the third time in two weeks that the couple had been late and it was also the third time they had bumped in to him and made him spill his coffee all over himself. Next time they were late; Ryan would hide in the break room until they had arrived and it was safe to walk in the lab with his coffee.

**-I-**

The team was busy with four different crime scenes. Jesse, Horatio and Calleigh were on a crime scene where it looked like two gangs had got in to a fight and ended up killing each other. There were four victims.

"Who called it in?" Calleigh asked.

"Anonymous person." Horatio said, "It looks like they had quite the fight before they shot each other. Look at all the mess."

"Somebody got cut from landing on this mirror." Jesse said as he photographed and swabbed a mirror on the floor.

"I got five bullet holes in the walls." Calleigh said.

Just then Dr. Tom Loman arrived and knelt down by the first victim. As he checked all the victims he didn't find any through and through.

"So somebody missed five times." Horatio said.

"Bad shooter." Jesse commented quietly to himself.

Calleigh picked out all the bullets in the walls and put them in a plastic bag for processing back at the lab. Then she joined Horatio in photographing all the different shoeprints. Jesse photographed the mess that the victims had caused and Loman took the bodies back to the morgue.

"What if the caller is someone who survived this?" Jesse suggested.

"Could be. He might be hurt." Horatio said, "Calleigh, call all hospitals and ask them to check for gun-shot victims."

Calleigh nodded and stepped away to make the call. Horatio joined Jesse by a corner in the room.

"Look at this, somebody bled here and then moved." Jesse said.

There was a big pool of blood on the floor and blood drops leading to the place where victim number one had previously laid.

"Victim number one." Horatio said, "Maybe he made the call."

"When did the call come in?" Jesse asked.

"Only two minutes before the fist officers arrived." Horatio said.

"So thirty minutes ago." Jesse said, "Then there is a good chance he might be our caller."

Horatio nodded and then stepped outside to talk to the two officers who were the first on the scene. In the meantime Jesse and Calleigh processed the rest of the room.

"Alright, this is evidence from half of this room. I'm going to take it to the lab." Calleigh smiled after a while of processing.

Jesse nodded and watched Calleigh leave. He checked his watch and sighed. Horatio came back and helped Jesse process the rest of the scene. Horatio stood up when he heard screeching tires from a car and saw a black SUV with tinted windows approach the scene.

Just as he saw a gun stick out from the window he yelled for the officers to get down. Jesse laid flat on the floor and watched as Horatio took two bullets to the chest and one to his left thigh. Jesse covered his head with his hands as bullets flew over him. Then it stopped and Jesse looked up to see the SUV speed off. He stepped over Horatio and went outside to see the two officers on the ground, shot with more than five bullets. They were dead.

"Jesse!" Horatio gasped.

Jesse turned around and looked at Horatio. He was trying to stop the bleeding by covering his wounds with his hands, but he got weaker every second.

"Jesse, you… you have to… help." Horatio panted.

"I can't H. This is how it's going to be. You've stepped on some toes and I've been ordered not to help you." Jesse sighed, "I'm sorry."

Jesse watched as Horatio fought to stay awake on the same time as he heard sirens approach from afar.

_**TBC…**_

**AN: Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Jesse watched as the paramedics loaded Horatio on to a gurney and then drove to the hospital. He had failed! Horatio was still alive. And there was no way he would be able to finish him off without being caught. He couldn't do it at the hospital because that would be too obvious. Somebody could see him walk in to H's room and the team wouldn't think it was a coincidence that Jesse was with H during two attacks. No, somebody else would have to kill him, which meant Jesse had to call his boss. He was kept from calling his boss when Ryan, Calleigh and Eric arrived on the scene.

"What the hell happened?" Eric asked agitated.

No one could believe that Horatio Caine had been shot three times in a drive-by shooting. No one could imagine him lying in a hospital bed. Jesse knew that if they found out that he was dirty they would probably kill him. He also knew it looked strange that he was the only one on the scene without a scratch on him.

"It was an SUV. It came out of nowhere." Jesse said, "I was kneeling down and I just pressed myself flat to the floor when the shots came. I'm sorry, I..."

"Jesse, it's not your fault." Calleigh said firmly, "Whoever did this, was probably part of a gang."

Calleigh told Ryan and Eric what the crime scene was about. Four gang members who had killed each other in a fight. They now suspected that the SUV belonged to someone in the two gangs.

"But why shoot the cops then?" Ryan asked, "If these four gang members shot each other, then the rest of the gangs have nothing to worry about. The other members haven't committed any crime here so taking out the cops who are simply investigating it would be completely useless."

Jesse started sweating. He had underestimated the team. He hadn't thought they would be so quick to figure out that the shooting was useless.

"We're missing something." Eric said, "But whoever shot H is going to pay."

Jesse almost laughed out loud. Little Eric Delko had no idea that by the time he figured out the whole picture, his life would be hanging on by a thread.

"I'm going to the hospital to keep an eye on Horatio." Calleigh said, "I'll call as soon as I know something."

"We will too." Ryan said and turned to Jesse when Calleigh was gone, "Are you alright?"

Jesse nodded, "Yeah, as fine as you can be after you've watched your friend and boss get shot. I tried to stop the bleeding, but it was too hard with three gunshot wounds."

Ryan nodded and patted Jesse's shoulder before he walked to where the two officers were lying. Just then Tom arrived. He also patted Jesse's shoulder before joining Ryan by the two dead officers.

"I'm going to stay out of this one." Jesse sighed.

"You should get checked up at the hospital too, you could be in shock." Eric said.

Jesse just nodded and left.

**-I-**

"I know I screwed up!" Jesse growled, "You don't have to tell me that."

"_It's a disaster! What if they figure out that you're dirty?"_ The man on the other line exclaimed.

"They won't."

"_You don't know that."_

"Look, I'm the cop who has worked with Caine before; they would never suspect that I didn't try to save him." Jesse said.

"_If you suspect that they start to know then you have to get out of Miami fast."_

"I know."

"_The guy who hired me isn't so happy about this Jesse."_

"He can go fuck himself!"

"_No! He's being controlled by somebody else."_

"What are you talking about?"

"_This is much bigger than you think. You're only a tool in this Cardoza and you better remember your true place!"_ The man snapped and hung up.

Jesse growled and threw his phone against the wall. Calleigh walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. For a second she saw anger in his eye that she had never seen before.

"Jesse, what did the doctors tell you?" She asked softly.

"That I'm fine." Jesse sighed, "How's H?"

"He's in surgery. They think he's going to make it through that, but there is still a big risk that he could…" Calleigh said, she didn't need to finish the sentence.

Jesse gave her a hug to reassure her that Horatio would be fine.

"He'll be fine. He'll be back in the lab again soon." Jesse smiled, although the smile was as fake as it could get.

Calleigh smiled back and nodded. She sat down in a chair in the waiting area. Jesse remained standing.

"Who was that on the phone?" Calleigh asked, she was looking at her hands and missed that Jesse tensed at her question.

"My father. A real asshole sometimes." Jesse sighed.

Calleigh nodded. She hadn't heard what they had said to each other but it had been clear that it wasn't a nice conversation.

"He's probably just worried about you." Calleigh said.

"Yes, well he needs to learn that I'm a grown man." Jesse said.

Calleigh nodded. After a while Jesse decided to go back to the lab and when he parked the car, he saw Eric carrying evidence from his hummer to the elevator. It was evidence from the crime scene.

"Hey Eric." Jesse said as he stepped out of his car.

"Hey Jesse, what did the doctor say?"

"About who?"

"About you of course." Eric said.

"Oh, I'm fine." Jesse said and sighed when his phone rang again.

He stepped away from Eric so he wouldn't hear what he said.

"What? How many phone calls do they actually allow you to make in prison?"

"_It's the positive thing about being a man in a high place. I get to make as many calls as I like!"_ The man laughed.

"You _were_ a man in a high place. Now you're a convict."

"_Watch your tongue Cardoza! I still have contacts on the outside and they know what to do with you if you start talking back at me too much."_

Jesse sighed, "Sorry."

"_That's better. Now, how is Caine?"_

"He's in surgery but the doctors are optimistic." Jesse said.

"_So he needs to be finished off then. Hmm…" _

"How?"

"_I may know a way. But not now. When he's out of surgery you give me a call."_ The man ordered.

"I need to go now."

"_I tell you when to hang up on me!"_ The man growled, _"Now, you keep an eye on the team and on Caine or it's you who will die."_

Jesse looked at the phone in his hand after the man had hung up. He was in deep shit now. He walked to the elevator just as Eric was going up to the lab.

"Are you okay?" Eric asked.

He had never seen Jesse so agitated before. Whoever it was that had called him it was making Jesse very angry.

"Yeah." Jesse sighed heavily, "It's just my father. He thinks I'm still a kid."

"My dad is like that sometimes too. Especially if I get hurt." Eric said.  
"Well I'm not hurt!" Jesse snapped, "Sorry."

"It's okay. Look Jesse, why don't you go home for today?"

"Nah, I can't." Jesse shook his head.

The two men stepped out of the elevator and carried the evidence boxes straight to the lab where Ryan and Walter were. All the DNA evidence was carried to Valera and Natalia in the DNA lab.

"Alright, since Calleigh isn't here to test the bullets, I'll do it instead." Eric said.

"I'll test the evidence that Calleigh brought back from the original crime scene." Walter said.

Ryan and Jesse were left to process the rest of the evidence. Unfortunately there wasn't much evidence and all the DNA belonged to the four gang members, the two officers and Horatio. The bullets belonged to the gang members and an automatic gun which had been used by the shooter in the SUV.

"So all we got to go on are the bullets from an automatic gun belonging to whoever shot from the SUV?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, and the tire marks match a black SUV." Jesse said.

"I'll put that out on a bolo." Frank said from the doorway.

Jesse handed him the note with car's registration number and Frank left to put out a bolo for it.

"So what do we do now?" Walter asked.

"We check our local gangs to see if anyone knows anything." Eric said.

Eric and Walter left to talk to a gang known as the _Lions_. While Jesse and Ryan talked to Lion's biggest enemies the _Snakes_.

**-I-**

Hours later Ryan frowned as he watched Jesse talk on the phone. Ryan was checking up on the four dead gang members. Who apparently were a part of a small gang with no name. Ryan saw how Jesse started getting angry at the caller and he started feeling uneasy about Jesse's behavior. Something was wrong. The Jesse he knew would never get so angry by a phone call. Jesse ended the call and started walking towards Ryan.

"Hey." Ryan said, "The four gang members are a part of a gang with no name. It's not really a gang either; there are only seven people in it." Ryan said, "For me that's not a gang."

"They're part of the same gang?" Jesse asked.

"Yep, that's the weirdest part of it. Why would four guys in the same gang shoot each other?"

"Mass-suicide?" Jesse suggested.

"They don't need to cause such a scene to do that." Ryan said.

"Any news on H?" Jesse asked.

"He's not out of surgery yet." Ryan said, "Maybe in two hours he will be."

"Let's hope he continues fighting for his life then." Jesse muttered.

"H would never stop fighting."

"He's not so young anymore Ryan, he might not be able to fight for so long." Jesse pointed out.

Ryan frowned, "H is one of the strongest men I have ever met."

"He was shot three times. Even if he survives he will be in pain."

"What do you mean _if _he survives?" Ryan asked agitated, "Of course he will survive!"

Horatio was like a father to Ryan and he wasn't about to give up hope that the red head would make it.

"I'm just saying he will be in pain and maybe it would be better to put him out of his misery." Jesse shrugged.

Ryan almost punched Jesse for saying that, but he managed to control himself.

"It almost sounds as if you _want_ him to die!" Ryan growled, "He is going to make it and he's going to come back to the lab."

"I'm just saying that…"

"Stop saying it!" Ryan snapped, "Geez, Jesse."

Jesse nodded. He had almost exposed himself there. He could always blame it on delayed shock from the shooting. There was a knock on the door and Rick Stetler nodded for Jesse to come to him. Jesse sighed as he stepped out of the small lab and faced IAB Lt. Rick Stetler.

"What do you want Stetler?" Jesse asked.

Ryan watched from inside the lab as Rick angrily told Jesse something. Whatever it was caused Jesse to become just as angry. Ryan couldn't get over his conversation with Jesse. Something was wrong. Jesse should be saying that Horatio would make it, not act as if he was already dead. Horatio wasn't going to die. Ryan frowned as Rick grabbed Jesse's arm as he tried to walk away. Jesse pulled his arm out of Rick's grip and gave him a glare. Then both men disappeared in different directions. Jesse went back inside to join Ryan and Rick went to the elevator.

"What did he want?" Ryan asked.

"He asked me if I screwed up at the scene. Why I wasn't shot." Jesse said, "He seems to think I had something to do with it."

Ryan just nodded. In reality that was not what had happened. As Jesse and Ryan looked at the rap sheets of the four dead gang members, the conversation with Rick played over and over again in Jesse's mind.

**Flashback**

"_What do you want Stetler?" Jesse asked._

"_I know you have something to do with the drive-by shooting." Rick growled low, "And you screwed up."_

"_What are you talking about?" Jesse asked._

"_Look Cardoza, the man you work for has been hired by the man I work for." Rick said, "And he isn't happy about Horatio still being alive. You failed. How hard can it really be to just sit and watch as a man dies?"_

"_The ambulance got there faster than I had expected!" Jesse growled, "Now leave me alone… Rick."_

_Jesse turned to walk back to the lab as Rick grabbed his arm._

"_You better make damn sure that you don't screw up your second task as well or you'll soon ruin my job too!"_

"_I won't screw up again." Jesse growled and pulled his arm away._

**End of flashback**

"I'll go talk to the rest of the gang." Jesse said, "Maybe they know what happened."

"Want me to go with you?" Ryan asked.

"Nah, I can handle it." Jesse said and left.

The truth was that Jesse didn't want Ryan to go with him because then he would know that Jesse already knew the gang. Jesse wasn't going to see the gang either; he was just going out for a cup of coffee.

When Jesse was gone, Ryan searched for information about him on the computer.

"What are you doing?" Eric asked from the doorway.

"Something is wrong with Jesse."

"You mean the strange phone calls?"

"You've seen him talk agitated on the phone too?" Ryan asked and Eric nodded.

Ryan told him about Jesse and Rick's little talk and how Jesse had talked about Horatio as if he wanted him to die.

"Look at this, there is nothing that says Jesse has worked for LAPD." Ryan said, "That SOB lied!"

"He's been doing nothing for the past 12 years." Eric said as anger started to rise inside him.

"I also remember on the scene after H had been shot; Jesse's hand weren't bloody." Ryan said, "He said he had tried to stop the bleeding, but that it was too hard with three gunshot wounds."

Eric nodded as he also remembered how clean Jesse's hands had been.

"He never touched H." Eric said.

"He lied and he also lied about working for LAPD." Ryan growled.

"We can ask his father about who he really is." Eric said.

"What?"

"The man he's been talking to on the phone, he said it was his father." Eric explained.

Ryan pulled up a new article that he had found earlier.

"Eric, Jesse's parents died seven years ago in a car accident."

_**TBC…**_

**AN: Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

"What?" Natalia exclaimed.

Ryan and Eric nodded. They had gathered the gathered the whole team, except Jesse, and told them what they had found out. Everyone was having a hard time digesting the news that Jesse Cardoza was a dirty cop, a liar and that he had conspired to kill Horatio.

"I'm going to kill that SOB!" Frank growled.

"I know we all want to do that, but we can't. As stupid as it feels to say it, we would break the law." Eric sighed.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's arrest that asshole." Frank said.

Ryan nodded and followed Frank outside. They went to the garage to see if Jesse was there. He should be done with questioning the gang members, although they suspected that he hadn't done that. They both smirked as they saw Jesse approach them.

"Hey guys, anything new on H?" Jesse asked.

"Oh wouldn't you like to know that." Frank smirked, "Hold your hands above your head."

Jesse was too stunned to fight and just lifted his hands above his head. Frank searched him for weapons other than his service weapon, which he gave to Ryan. As Frank was about to cuff Jesse, Ryan stopped him.

"Let me do it." Ryan said and took the cuffs from Frank.

Frank knew that Ryan needed to do it. He wanted to be the one to lead the man he had trusted with his life to a holding cell.

"I hope the other inmates in jail beat the crap out of you." Ryan whispered in Jesse's ear as he cuffed him and led him to a holding cell.

Jesse just chuckled and shook his head. He had not expected to be caught and he knew that he only had himself to blame. He had asked too many questions about H's well-being. He should have known that Ryan or Eric would figure out what he was up to. But before Jesse was taken to jail, he had one last call to make. One last devastating call.

**-I-**

Natalia and Walter had been called to a crime scene. It turned out that two men in a big black SUV had been shot at close range. Tom was already on the scene when Walter and Natalia arrived. Jesse had been in a holding cell for an hour and by now everyone at MDPD knew that he was dirty.

"Hey Tom." Natalia sighed, no one was cheerful on a day like this, "Can you tell us anything?"

"They were shot at close range, probably trusted whoever killed them." Tom said, "They died four hours ago."

"Is it a coincidence that the person who shot H drove a black SUV?" Walter asked, although the answer was obvious.

"It's an automatic gun in the backseat. I bet Calleigh will be able to match the bullets to the ones who injured H and killed the two officers." Natalia said.

"I don't have a good feeling about this Nat. Could Jesse have done this while he was supposedly questioning the other gang members?" Walter asked.

"Hell yes. He probably shot them to eliminate witnesses." Natalia growled, "Do the bodies have any tattoos?"

"Yes, a white-framed square on the back of their neck." Tom said, "Mean anything?"

"Yeah, they are a part of a gang with no name." Natalia said.

"Oh yes, the four bodies in the morgue from this morning have the same tattoo." Tom said.

"There were seven members in the gang, and six of them have already died, only one member is left then." Walter sighed, "Unless of course, somebody killed him too."

**-I-**

Frank and Ryan had left Jesse in a holding cell for three hours. In the meantime every member of the gang with no name had been found dead. The last member had been found dead in his apartment. Shot at close range. Frank was going to stay out of the interrogation with Jesse, because he feared he would beat him if he said the wrong thing. Instead Calleigh was going to interrogate him with Ryan. Jesse's phone was with Cooper in the AV-lab, unfortunately Rick was making it difficult for Cooper to process the phone because Rick felt that somebody who didn't know Jesse should do it. In meant that Cooper had to find another lab tech, which could take hours.

Jesse was now sitting in an integration room, Calleigh and Ryan sat across from him and glared at him. Jesse knew that they had enough evidence to charge him with the intent to murder Horatio, since he hadn't saved him at the scene. Jesse would lose his job and go to jail. No jury would ever let him walk.

"So Jesse, you tried to save Horatio this morning at the scene?" Calleigh asked.

Jesse nodded. Even though he knew that they already knew the truth, he at least wanted to try and lie. It wouldn't make a difference.

"Your hands were clean and the paramedics said that when they showed up you weren't even close to Horatio." Calleigh said.

"I thought he was already dead." Jesse said.

"That's a lie and you know it!" Ryan growled, "You had never intended to save him. You said you were kneeling on the floor when the SUV pulled up and they started shooting."

"Yes?"

"We checked it out, there was no way you could have been kneeling and that house and seen what kind of car it was." Calleigh said.

Jesse looked shocked at her. He had not expected them to test if he had told the truth.

"You knew what kind of car it was before because your had hired the gang to stage the crime scene and shoot H and the two officers." Ryan said, "Then you shot them to death to prevent them from testifying against you in case this got out."

Jesse was stunned and Ryan stood up angrily. He slammed his hands down on the table, causing Jesse to jump in fear.

"You lied! You lied about talking to your father on the phone; you lied about working for LAPD! You lied about everything." Ryan growled.

Calleigh out a comforting hand of Ryan's arm. She feared that he would kill Jesse if he didn't calm down soon. Calleigh also wanted to stand Jesse on the shooting range and test all her guns on him.

"Horatio trusted you! You were his friend all these years." Ryan said, tears were starting to form in his eyes, "I trusted you! We've joked together, gone out to bars together and I thought we were friends."

Jesse just looked at Ryan as he yelled at him. He knew he deserved it. But the day he had moved from Miami his life had completely screwed up.

"I never made an honorable life in L.A." Jesse said, "I got money fast by becoming a simple criminal."

"Well, congratulations you just became a murderer." Calleigh said and stood up to cuff Jesse and take him back to his cell.

"Wait a minute." Ryan said, "You seemed shock when I told you that the gang members were dead."

"I was."

"You didn't kill them." Ryan said.

"No."

"Who did?" Calleigh asked.

"Look, I'm just a tool in a much bigger game." Jesse said, "I don't know half of what's really going on and I was only hired by a man who in turn was hired by another man or something like that."

Ryan nodded. He believed Jesse for now. Calleigh took Jesse back to his holding cell and Ryan left the room. He marched straight to the men's room in the lab and there he punched the wall so hard that his fist started bleeding.

"Hey!" Eric growled as he entered the room and took a strong hold of Ryan's shoulders.

Ryan tried to fight Eric off him, but Eric was stronger than him. He pushed Ryan down on the floor and sat down next to him. He patted his back as Ryan cried. He felt so betrayed. He had trusted Jesse with his life. He had always thought that if he was shot on a crime scene; Jesse would save him. Now he wasn't so sure if he would have. He had considered Jesse as a friend. Now he was an enemy. Worst of all was that he had been working side by side with him and not seen any suspicious behavior. If he had then maybe Horatio wouldn't have been shot.

"I could have done something." Ryan said after a while.

"Like what?" Eric asked.

"Maybe if I had paid more attention I could have seen that something was wrong with Jesse months ago."

"You sound like Horatio."

"Huh?"

"You take the blame for things you can't control." Eric said, "H does that all the time. The guilt eats him every day and he doesn't know how to let go."

"I don't take the blame for everything." Ryan said but didn't quite believe his own words.

"You just did."

"Eric…"

"Ryan, you couldn't have known okay? I've worked with Jesse too, I'll admit that I didn't like him at first, but I never believed he was a criminal and a liar."

"What will Horatio say when he finds out that a man he's known for years sat and watched him bleed?" Ryan asked.

Eric shrugged.

"I can't believe I've actually had good time with Jesse." Ryan said with a disgusting tone.

"Ryan, we aren't supposed to analyze and notice every single thing about the people we love and care for." Eric sighed, "I took me years to notice that Horatio take on the blame for everything or that he loves the ocean. It took me months to notice that Calleigh takes two sugar bites with her coffee."

Ryan chuckled and Eric patted his back.

"You should be proud over yourself. You saw a suspicious behavior in Jesse today. I saw a man who had just been through a traumatic event." Eric said and then his phone rang.

Ryan closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall as Eric finished his call.

"That was Calleigh, the hospital just called." Eric said.

"H?"

"In a coma."

Ryan sighed heavily.

"He's got two officers outside his door." Eric said.

"Good."

**-I-**

Jesse was allowed one phone call. And he only made one important phone call.

"They busted me." Jesse sighed and told the man on the other end what had happened since their last conversation.

"_Shit!_" The man cursed, "_You stupid motherfucker! How could you be so fucking stupid?_"

"Calmdown Ratner!" Jesse growled.

"_Don't use my name you idiot! Somebody could hear you_." Ratner growled.

"You're already in jail, what does it matter?"

"_That doesn't mean that they can't charge with me with something new_."

"How do we solve this problem about the team and my arrest?" Jesse asked.

"_I'm not so sure I want to help you. So far all you've done is screw things up_."

"Did you get the gang members shot?"

"_No_." Ratner sighed, "_But I heard about their_ _deaths_."

"Can you get me out?"

"_Yeah. I'll call the man who hired me and see what he can do_." Ratner said and ended the call.

Jesse sighed and went back to his cell. In the meantime, Ratner made a new call from the jail phone. He called his boss.

"Cardoza got caught." Ratner said.

"_So I've heard_."

"What do we do?"

"_I have some plans that will cause many more death in MDPD. They all happen at around the same time and the team will especially suffer a great loss_." The man chuckled.

"You're going to kill one of them?"

"_Yes. And finish off Caine_."

"And?"

"_And free Cardoza of course_." The man said.

"Now?"

"_In_ _about an hour it should be set in to motion_."

"You're a dangerous man."

"_Not as dangerous as the man who hired me. He has high demands_." The man said, "_Now, go back to your cell and just wait. Cardoza will probably call you once he is out_."

The man hung up and Ratner went back to his cell.

**-I-**

The first of the three things that happened was three men arrived at the entrance of Miami Dade Hospital and walked in, their face not covered and their guns attached to their pants. The nurses greeted them and one of the men asked where the ICU was. Once they got directions they took the elevator up to the third floor. They arrived at the ICU and walked quickly towards the nurse's desk.

"Excuse me, in which room is Lt. Caine?" Once of the men asked.

"May I ask why you want to see him?" The nurse asked.

"No." The man smirked and shot the nurse.

Unfortunately the guns didn't have silencers so the shot was hard by the guards at Horatio's door. They took their guns out of their holsters and aimed in front of them. The man who had shot the nurse looked on the computer in which room Horatio was in.

"234." He smirked, "Let's go and get this over with."

The three men walked towards the right room and when the officer's outside Horatio's room saw them, they demanded that they ID themselves. The men took out their guns and fired at the officers. One of the officers got off a shot just before he collapsed with a bullet in his neck. He managed to shoot one of the shooters in the head.

"Shit!" The leader cursed and shot the officer again in the face.

The other officer was already dead with four bullets in his body. The leader, who had been the one to shot the nurse, opened the door to Horatio's room just as his partner went down with two bullets in the back. The leader turned around and saw Frank aiming his gun at him. Walter was behind Frank. They had come to visit Horatio and instead met a massacre.

The shooter ran behind a corned and managed to grab a doctor and hold him as a shield in front of him.

"Drop your weapon!" Frank demanded.

"Never." The man smirked and aimed his gun at the doctor's head.

"Drop your weapon or I'll have to shoot." Frank growled.

The shooter moved towards the emergency exit and shot the doctor just as he ran outside in the stairway. Frank tried to stop the bleeding from the doctor's neck wound, while Walter ran after the shooter. He managed to shoot him in the leg on his way down.

"Throw your gun away from you!" Walter demanded as he got closer to the shooter.

The man just smirked and shot himself in the head. Walter sighed and called it in. What they didn't know was that it would take some time before anyone would arrive.

**-I-**

Just as Walter called in the shooting, two men and two women entered the PD. The two women had bombs in their hands and the men had automatic guns.

"Everybody stand still or we'll shoot!" The leader demanded.

The women walked towards the holding cells and all the cops let them pass through. That was until a poor soul that was guarding the holding cells shot one of the women. He hadn't noticed the situation and was so shocked to see two women with bombs that he shot at them. Unfortunately, the moment he did, the two men started shooting at the cops. The cops hid behind their desks and ran towards every exit they could find. Those who were hidden had to watch as their friends and co-workers went down with bullets in their bodies. The two men killed eight cops and then went after the two women. The officer who had shot one of the women had been kicked knocked unconscious by the other woman who had hit him with a chair she had found. Now the officer was taped to chair and could only call for help.

"Shut up or I will blow your brains out!" One of the men growled.

The second woman placed her bomb at the door to the holding cell. As it exploded, the door was blown away and Jesse could escape.

"Thanks a lot." Jesse said, "Was it really necessary to kill so many people?"

"Are you questioning my methods?" The leader of the group growled and aimed his gun at Jesse's face.

"Not at all." Jesse said and walked away with the woman and the other guy.

The leader stayed behind and shot two other guys in the holding cell and then put the remaining bomb in the officer's mouth. He taped around the mouth, so that the officer wouldn't be able to spit the bomb out. Then he set the timer on ten seconds.

"My mama always said I was a freak. I guess she was right." The guy smirked and left.

As the bomb exploded and the officer died, the man walked past the cops who were still hiding. But as he did, he was shot in the back by one of them and as he fell he saw the second woman get shot too.

**-I-**

Calleigh had been out on a quick lunch when she heard about the shooting at the hospital and at the PD. She knew that the quickest way back to the PD form where she was was through a quick route in the Everglades. She would later regret taking that detour. As she was driving, she was thinking about if she should turn around and head to the hospital instead. But according to the information on the police radio, there was more injured people at the PD. Calleigh cursed silently as she saw a car down the road and a woman waving for help. Calleigh really didn't feel like stopping, but she could always tell them that she had to go somewhere quick.

"Can I help you?" Calleigh asked as he stopped next to the woman's car and rolled down her window.

"My son, he's sick. He's won't wake up." The woman cried.

Calleigh got out of the car.

"He's in the backseat." The woman said.

Calleigh opened the back door and frowned. Just as she was about to say that there was no boy, she realized that she had been tricked. She turned around and was met by a blow to the head by a bat. Calleigh was knocked out cold. In the meantime, the woman poured gasoline on Calleigh's hummer, while the man, her partner in crime, beat Calleigh with a bat every now and then.

"Let's put her in the front seat." The man smirked, "She'll be crispy once her friends figure out where she is."

"Her pretty face will be gone." The woman laughed and helped the man lift up Calleigh and put her in the driver's seat.

The woman then put the gasoline on fire and drove off. Leaving Calleigh knocked out in a burning car, with no one around to help and her co-workers busy with two crime scenes and several deaths.

_**Please review!**_


	4. Chapter 4

Calleigh coughed and opened her eyes at the smell of smoke. She gasped as she saw that the hummer was on fire. She reached for the door handle and fumbled with it to get it open. The smoke filled the car and Calleigh could barely breathe. She ignored the pain of her burning clothes as she kicked at the door. When it finally opened she stumbled outside and rolled on the ground. She screamed as her clothes burned and the only thing she could think of was to run down to the water. She prayed to god that there wouldn't be any hungry crocodiles or alligators nearby as she ran straight out in to the water to cool down. She took a deep breath and dove. When she stood up again, she went back to land. She hissed in pain as she looked down at what was left of her clothes and saw that she was burned on her upper thighs and her hands and arms.

Tears fell from her eyes as she sat on the road and watched as the hummer burned. Despite the pain from her hands she searched her pockets for her cell phone and sighed in relief when she found it. She called 911 and she was told that somebody would be there as soon as possible. Calleigh knew that the PD had to be in great shock right now. They had been attacked and Horatio had been attacked at the hospital and everybody were probably more busy taking care of the wounded at the PD than to take a trip to the Glades and save Calleigh. She was alive and not so injured that she would die in a matter of minutes. There were others who were in more need of help than her. It was true, even if it wasn't something that was like-able.

However, Eric had heard about the CSI in the Glades that was injured and he instinctively knew it was Calleigh. His Calleigh. He drove out to her with Ryan in the passenger seat and when they arrived, Calleigh was lying on the ground.

"Calleigh!" Eric yelled and as he ran towards her.

"Oh my god, Calleigh. What happened?" Eric asked as he knelt down next to her, careful not to touch her burns.

"I was ambushed. A woman was asking for help." Calleigh said before she slipped in to unconsciousness.

"Jesse did this!" Ryan growled, "I don't know how, but he did something to cause this."

"Three things happened around the same time so that we wouldn't be able to prepare. They wanted to make sure we were hit hard." Eric said, "Where's the fucking ambulance?"

Right then the sirens of the ambulance was heard.

**-I-**

At the PD things were on complete chaos when Ryan returned after leaving the Glades. All the officers who had been shot had died either at the PD or on their way to the hospital. The two women and the leader had also died and Jesse was missing.

"How did it go at the hospital?" Ryan asked as he saw Walter approach him.

"H is safe. Frank is guarding him." Walter said, "Three attackers died, two officers and one nurse."

Ryan shook his head and took a deep breath. He could feel the anger rise inside him and he wanted to kill a certain former CSI.

"We have to move H and Cal." Ryan said.

"What?"

"Move them out of the state. Let's call NY and see if the team up there can provide some help." Ryan said and turned to walk away.

Walter followed him to the lab.

"Ryan, um, two FBI agents showed up at the hospital." Walter said.

"What the hell do they want?"

"They said they wanted to protect H. They said that one of their agents had also been shot and that he and H had been working on something." Walter said, "They're willing to move H out of Florida until this is over."

"Call them and tell them to come here." Ryan said.

"Where is Natalia?"

"She was on lunch when this happened. She's stuck in traffic because of all the ambulances that needed to an empty way to drive on. Officers are questioning every person they can see out on the streets to see if we have any witnesses." Ryan sighed, "Jesse is missing."

"Yeah, I heard."

"He did something to cause this. Go find the guy who booked him or anyone who knows if Jesse made a phone call." Ryan said and Walter left.

Ryan sat down in one of the labs and simply allowed himself a moment for himself. They were two CSI's short. Their boss was in a coma, Calleigh was injured and both of them had to move to a secret location. Ryan had to take on the role of the leader. He promised Horatio in his mind not to sleep until he had caught everyone responsible for this circus.

**-I-**

Eric was almost going crazy waiting for any news on Calleigh. Frank was on the floor above guarding Horatio. Two FBI agents had suddenly got involved and gone to the lab to talk to Ryan and all Eric could do was to sit and wait. Drink bad coffee and hope that Calleigh would be okay.

"Mr. Delko?" A female voice asked.

Eric lifted his head and looked at the female doctor who stood in front of him.

"You are listed as Ms. Duquesne's next of kin, yes?" The doctor asked.

Eric could only nod.

"I'm Dr. Anna Haynes. Ms. Duquesne had suffered severe burns to her upper thighs, arms and hands. She will suffer scaring once the wound heal, but other than that she will be fine." Anna smiled.

Eric sighed in relief.

"Can I see her?" He asked.

"Of course, she is in room 34." Anna said and Eric thanked her before walking quickly down the hallway to the right room.

He peeked inside and saw Calleigh lying in the bed. Her arms covered with bandages and wearing a nasal cannula. He sat down next to the bed and caressed her cheek softly. Calleigh turned her head towards her boyfriend and smiled.

"Hi." Eric whispered.

"Hi."

"I'm so sorry I didn't go with you. I should have had lunch with you and then maybe…"

"Eric. Stop. You couldn't have known this was going to happen. I'm just happy that I woke up in time to get out of the car."

"I am too." Eric smiled, "I swear I'm going to kill the person who did this."

"Eric, how many cases do we have that revenge-murders?"

"Too many."

"Don't become one of those cases. As much as I would like to kick around the people who did this to me, I can't. I work in the law enforcement. I believe in the law and if I take the law in to my own hands, than I am no better than the people we put behind bars." Calleigh said.

Eric nodded. Calleigh was right.

"I'm not leaving your side from now on." He said.

"If you want to have your revenge, then help the rest of the team catch these guys." Calleigh smiled.

"Okay. I'll leave once you're asleep." Eric smiled, "How are you feeling by the way?"

"Fine. The baby is fine too."

"Baby?" Eric asked shocked.

"Dr. Haynes told me I was pregnant. Seven weeks." Calleigh grinned, "I know we didn't plan it, but…"

Eric silenced Calleigh with a kiss and then smiled widely.

"I'm going to help catch everybody involved in this so that our baby can grow up safely." Eric promised and gave Calleigh a kiss.

**-I-**

Frank and Eric were standing at Miami international airport waving goodbye to their blond ballistic expert as she was being taken to a private jet by the two FBI agents, two nurses and Dr. Haynes. After Ryan and the FBI agents had talked it had been decided that Calleigh and Horatio would be moved to New York. The two FBI agents would be outside their rooms the whole time and more than ten fifteen FBI agents would be placed in different places at the hospital to be undercover in case something happened.

"How come they couldn't tell Ryan what H and the dead FBI agent were working on?" Eric asked.

"Because they didn't know. It wasn't an official investigation yet." Frank sighed, "Horatio and the agent are the only ones who knows about it."

"This sucks." Eric said.

"I know. This thing is so much bigger than Jesse. Like he said, he's only a tool." Frank said, "I got a feeling that whatever Horatio and the agent found made some very important people in high places very angry."

"If it had been any of us in a coma, Horatio wouldn't have stopped hunting for the criminals, he wouldn't have given up and he would have investigated every angle he could and we're going to do the same." Eric said firmly.

Frank nodded in agreement. Just then his phone rang and the ID read Wolfe.

"Yeah?" Frank answered, "Really? We're on our way back."

"Ryan find something?"

"Yeah, he, Nat and Walter find who Jesse had been calling." Frank smirked.

The drive back to the lab was made by breaking every single traffic rule that existed. Frank and Eric rushed to the AV lab where their team mates and Cooper where.

"So?" Eric asked.

"Jesse made a phone call from holding, like he is allowed. He called Joseph Ratner." Ryan said and pressed played.

Every call made from the holding cells was recorded if the person who made the call was believed to be a dangerous person. Ryan had made sure that Jesse was treated like on.

As the call was played, Eric and Frank just got angrier and angrier.

"We need to talk to Ratner." Frank growled.

"I already called the prison warded. Ratner is waiting for us in a room without cameras. He said we could do whatever we wanted to him." Natalia said.

"It's amazing how nice people can get when the law enforcement is corrupt." Walter said.

"Frank, let's go talk to former Judge Ratner." Ryan said and Frank smirked evilly in agreement.

The rest of the team stayed behind in the lab and Eric told them that Calleigh was pregnant with their child. As good as the news was it was also bad because it made Calleigh more vulnerable if something decided to try and kill her again.

When Frank and Ryan arrived at the prison in which Ratner was kept, they went straight to the room where he was waiting for them. Ratner was the kind of prisoner who scared other inmates and that gave him power on the inside and outside. But he was about experience cops when they were as angry as they could get.

"I get if Ratner, you hate Lt. Caine for bringing you down and giving the jury the evidence they needed to find you guilty." Frank said as he entered the room and started the interrogation.

"I don't hate him for that. Well, maybe a little. I hate him more for taking my family away from me. My wife and kids!" Ratner growled and then smirked, "But I don't know what this has to do with anything."

"Well, you ordered Jesse Cardoza to make sure Lt. Caine died." Ryan said.

"No, I didn't do anything."

"Really?" Ryan asked and placed several papers in front of Ratner.

On the papers every conversation made between Ratner and Jesse had been written down. Ratner didn't need to read it to know that he was busted.

"I didn't order anybody to kill Caine." Ratner said.

"No, but you did order Cardoza not to save him when he was shot." Frank said.

"You know who ordered the hit." Ryan growled and grabbed Ratner by the collar of his shirt.

"I was ordered to order the hit." Ratner said.

"Who is ordering you around?" Ryan asked.

Ratner just smirked and Ryan punched him hard in the face. Frank grabbed Ryan's shoulder and pulled him away from Ratner.

"Are cops allowed to beat convicts now a days?" Ratner chuckled.

"Who hired you?" Frank asked, "My partner here is a very angry man and you better give us some answers before I let go of my grip on him."

Frank was holding Ryan against the wall to keep him from beating Ratner to death. Ryan was tired of unanswered questions and he had always hated Joseph Ratner.

"I'm not answering that." Ratner smirked, "Believe me I have nothing to fear. I'm just a tool in a bigger game."

"That's what Cardoza said." Frank said.

"You know it kind of funny Ratner. You like being in control and yet here you are. You murdered a person and have no contact with your family and you're not even the leader in this game. You're_ just_a tool." Ryan taunted and Ratner gave him a death glare.

"I would have thought that a man so obsessed with power wanted to be more than just a tool." Ryan smirked, "But you don't have big enough balls to do stand up to whoever hired you. Are you a little scared of him Joseph?"

Ratner just glared at the brown-haired CSI as he continued his taunting.

"Jail has made you a little weak hasn't it? Tell me, who are you fucking with to be allowed to make so many phone calls from here?" Ryan said, "You let the other inmates' screw you so that they give their phone time to you, is that it?"

Ratner stood up and got ready to launch himself at Ryan. Frank moved his hand towards his gun and Ratner sat back down.

"I wonder what it was like the first time you were raped by another man." Ryan said as he got behind Ratner.

He grabbed his neck and pressed his face down on the table.

"I will spread the word on the inside that Ratner is a snitch and a backstabber if you don't tell everything I want to know." Ryan warned, "You fellow inmates will soon turn their backs on you and you better start buying lubricant if you want to avoid any rectal problems. I've been told that jail-sex can get pretty rough."

Ryan let go of Ratner's neck and Ratner sat up straight. He merely looked at Ryan as Ryan walked around the table to face him.

"They won't believe you." Ratner said.

"Oh they will. You're not the only one with contact on the inside. I have a few people in here that can easily make your life a living hell." Ryan smirked, "Ready to talk?"

"You have to do better than threatening me with a rumor and rape." Ratner laughed.

Ryan looked at Frank and the big Texan nodded. He took out a photo of Ratner's daughter Christine and Ratner went pale. It was a photo taken outside the house where Christine and her mother now lived.

"Christine isn't very old is she?" Frank asked, "Only 15 right?"

Ratner didn't respond.

"Maybe a little too young for some men, but for others she is the perfect age." Frank said.

Ratner looked shocked at him.

"I am willing to go very far to get what I want." Ryan said, "As far as kidnapping your daughter and putting her on a place to Brazil. She will be in the cargo space and if she survives the trip to Brazil, she will be sold and be forced to sell herself to make a living."

"You can't do that!" Ratner exclaimed.  
"I'm not going to do it. Somebody else will on my orders. Just like you do things by somebody else's orders. DO you really want your little girl to become a sex-slave?"

"No."

"I mean you slept with a lot of prostitutes. You know how bad they are treated. Do you want your daughter to become one of them?" Frank asked.

"You can't really do that to her? She's only 15!"

"What's stopping me? You're a criminal! Should you really be lecturing me on what I can and can't do?" Ryan growled, "You've slept with prostitutes without giving a shit about if they were somebody's daughter!"

Ratner hung his head in shame. Ryan and Frank smirked. They had finally got him.

"I'm going to ask you one last time and you better answer me or your daughter is on the first flight out of here." Ryan warned, "Who is controlling you?"

_**TBC…**_

**AN: Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

"Julio Riaz." Ratner sighed.

He was screwed he knew that now. The rumor of him being a snitch would be revealed in to time. Frank and Ryan looked shocked at each other. They didn't know anybody from the Riaz family still lived.

"He is Antonio Riaz's father. You know Antonio right?" Ratner asked.

"Yeah. He murdered Lt. Caine's wife." Ryan said.

"Yes, and Julio has a lot of grudge against Caine. I'm not saying he is the only one controlling this whole thing, but he who I take orders from."

"Where can we find Julio?" Frank asked.

"I don't know. He ain't hard to arrest though. He's sick. Very sick." Ratner sighed, "Are we done?"

"Yeah, we're done." Ryan said.

A guard entered the room and cuffed Ratner before he led him out of the room to give Frank and Ryan some privacy. Ryan slumped down on a chair and sighed heavily. He hadn't slept in god knows how long and he was beginning to get really tired of all the shit going on. He wanted the case to be easy to solve so that Calleigh and especially Horatio could come back home and be safe.

"Riaz." Frank said, "This goes deeper than we thought."

"The FBI agents said that one of their own had worked on a case with H. That the investigation wasn't official yet and that only H and the dead agent knew exactly what it was about." Ryan said, "Could it be possible that it's about something that happened in Rio when Eric and H were there?"

"It seems very likely if Riaz is involved." Frank sighed, "We have to talk to Eric."

Frank and Ryan walked out of the prison towards Ryan's hummer and drove towards the lab. At first they were silently thinking about the case. Both of them knew how things could quickly go from bad to worse to total chaos. They had a feeling that something worse than the involvement of Julio Riaz was going to happen.

"If Julio is sick then it's a perfect opportunity for him to have his revenge on H." Ryan said, "It's his last chance. Now or never."

"Yeah, revenge for having his son arrested and sent to Brazil." Frank agreed.

"And revenge for whatever happened when H and Eric went there to find Antonio." Ryan said, "Whatever happened I hope Antonio is dead."

"Yeah, me too." Frank sighed, "What if Julio is not the brains behind this operation?"

"You mean like Ratner said? That he is being controlled by somebody too?"

"Exactly. What if Julio is taking orders too." Frank said.

"Then this just got bigger and more complicated." Ryan sighed.

**-I-**

Eric had revealed that what happened in Rio was Horatio killing Antonio in self defense. The team promised to have their backs no matter what happened and that they didn't feel as if Eric or Horatio had done anything wrong. By tracing Ratner's phone calls they found Julio Riaz's apartment. Cooper also did some research on Julio Riaz and it turned out that he was a doctor, had no rap sheet and was dying in lung cancer.

Ryan, Natalia and Frank drove with five officers to Julio's apartment and when they got there they were surprised to find Julio in a wheelchair, ready to go.

"Please, if it's okay I would like to leave my home without cuffs." Julio rasped as he faced Ryan and Natalia.

Frank came behind them and surveyed the apartment. There were photos of Antonio and Julio's wife Theresa. Antonio seemed like a completely different man on the photos, he was smiling, but not the evil smile he had given the cops every time they saw him, no it was a happy smile. The kind of smile that belonged to a man who had two kind and loving parents and was truly happy.

"We can take you to the station without cuffs. I don't think you'll attack us." Ryan said.

"Oh don't be so sure, they didn't call me the _scalpel-master_ at the hospital for nothing." Julio chuckled, "I was a surgeon for forty years."

Natalia gave the old-man a small smile. It was hard to imagine how Antonio could have become such a monster with a father like Julio. Except of course if Julio was just acting nice.

"Wipe the smile off your face old man. You're facing murder charges." Ryan growled.

"Ryan!" Both Frank and Natalia exclaimed.

Ryan just threw his hands up in the air in frustration and left.

"It's okay. I understand you are all very frustrated right now." Julio said, "It's not easy looking in to the eyes of the man who raised a murderer."

Natalia and Frank said nothing. Instead Frank and the officers helped Julio down stairs to a car. Natalia approached Ryan in the hallway.

"You know, I always thought you had the same iron control that Horatio and Calleigh have." Natalia said.

"I don't have it anymore is that what you're trying to tell me?" Ryan sighed.

"No, you still have it. But you also have a shorter fuse than Cal and H." Natalia smiled, "Ryan, I am so proud of you taking control over things. Making sure we all stay sane and do our job at this difficult time."

Ryan nodded.

"Horatio would be so proud of you and he will be once he finds out all that you've done."

"He will be proud over all of us." Ryan smiled.

"Well, we've all learned from the best teacher." Natalia said.

"Can you imagine what will happen to the team if H dies? What will happen to the lab? And what will Eric do if Calleigh dies?" Ryan suddenly asked, "We all have death marks on us right now and all we have found is a sick man who isn't even the boss of this shit, we have found a traitor within our own department and we have two team members in the hospital. What have we accomplished so far?"

Ryan's outburst of anger didn't surprise Natalia. He needed to get it off his chest.

"You make it seem like everyone who died have died for nothing. All those officers died for nothing." Natalia said, "Ryan, how can you stand here and say that we haven't accomplished anything when we just got one step further in this case?"

"But…"

"No buts!" Natalia growled, "We found a traitor, imagine if Jesse would have been able to keep on tricking us. We got him. Yes, two officers lost their lives because of it and H is in the hospital, but we exposed Jesse. We have accomplished so much in just one day. We're almost at the finish line, I can feel it. We will solve this case and by solving it we will have accomplished a lot of things!"

Ryan nodded. Natalia was right.

"Sorry, I just needed to be told that." Ryan said.

"I know. We all need to be yelled at a little sometimes." Natalia smiled, "Now, let's get back to the PD to question Julio."

**-I-**

The team agreed that it was probably for the best if Tripp and Walter handled the interrogation. The rest of them were watching from the two-way-mirror, while Cooper was in the AV lab tracing Julio's phone calls and listening to the recordings of his calls. As Cooper found new evidence he would send text messages to Walter so he could use it during the interrogation.

"Tell me please Julio, how come you are the one ordering Ratner what to do?" Walter asked.

"Because I am being ordered by the boss to do certain things and I know Ratner has good connections. I hired Ratner." Julio said.

"And who is your boss?" Frank asked.

"I can't say."

"Why? You'll be dead in two months anyway. You said that yourself." Frank said.

"I'm not a snitch."

"That's what Ratner said at first too, but Dt. Wolfe got him talking pretty quickly." Frank said.

"You can beat me all you want. Torture me if you want, but I'm not telling you who my boss is." Julio growled and then coughed.

Walter felt his phone vibrate as he got a message from Cooper. He read it and then showed it to Frank.

"Good news?" Julio asked.

"Yeah. We can tie you to the phone calls made from the shooters at the hospital, the shooters from the PD and the people who tried to burn Dt. Duquesne to death." Frank said.

"So I told some people to do some things." Julio shrugged, "I'll be dead…"

"In two months, we know." Walter said, "But you will die a criminal."

Julio shrugged.

"Imagine your former co-workers. What will they say? Your friends, your relatives." Walter smirked, "You used to be a surgeon, you save hundreds of people. What went wrong?"

"I have to quit because my hands started shaking as I got older. I need money. Antonio introduced me to his hidden life. I hated it at first; I still hate to admit that I am indeed a criminal. But I need money to survive." Julio said, "And that bastard Caine murdered my son!"

"What all the people your son murdered!" Walter exclaimed, "Your son is a murderer. The difference between the murders he committed and his own murder is that Lt. Caine killed him in self defense."

"Bullshit!"

"It's not bullshit!" Frank growled, "You're just like your son. A criminal. You don't give a shit about others, do you?"

"I used to." Julio admitted.

"Who is Mr. Crime?" Walter said after he had read a new text message from Cooper.

Julio said nothing.

"Mr. Crime is he your boss. Apparently he calls from disposable cell phones every time, but we know he is somewhere in downtown Miami." Walter said, "He is your boss isn't he?"

"I got nothing more to say." Julio said.

"He's the boss." Frank smirked, "And we're going to find him."

Julio remained silent as Frank and Walter left the room. The whole team then went to the lab to hear the recorded calls from Julio's phone.

"I have good news and bad news." Cooper sighed.

"Good first." Ryan said.

"Okay, it is clear that Mr. Crime is the boss based on what he says, it is also clear that he lives somewhere in downtown Miami." Cooper said, "The bad news is that he is altering his voice. It's going to take some time to do, but I will succeed… eventually."

"Let's hear the conversations." Ryan said.

The team listened to more than ten calls made from Mr. Crime to Julio. It was very clear that Mr. Crime was the boss. He gave himself away as he reminded Julio who the boss was and that needed to be done. Mr. Crime also revealed some information about the case that the dead Agent Spackler and Horatio had investigated.

"Okay, so Mr. Crime and Julio have some business together and Agent Spackler and Horatio were on to them." Frank said.

"They asked too many questions." Eric sighed, "How come H never told us about it?"

"If it's not official he doesn't have to." Natalia said.

"No, but this is H we're talking about." Eric said.

"Exactly!" Ryan exclaimed, "Horatio wouldn't tell us anything that could get us killed. He probably wasn't so sure that he and Spackler had a case yet either, they had just started investigating."

"In fact, if the hit on H hadn't been ordered as a drive-by shooting with Jesse on the scene, we would never have suspected that it was this big. Jesse probably wouldn't have lost his control and failed." Walter said.

"They made the situation worse by trying to save themselves." Ryan said, "Let's talk some more to… Tom?"

Tom Loman was standing in the doorway, panting heavily.

"I have a zombie in my morgue." He panted.

"Tom, this is a really bad time for jokes." Ryan sighed.

"I literally have a zombie in my lab!" Tom exclaimed.

The team frowned and went with Tom back to the lab. Tom grabbed a bat that he had in the morgue in case something happened and carefully entered the autopsy room.

"That open hatch is where she came out." Tom said and they all approached the hatch.

"Nobody is there." Natalia said.

"She was banging on the door, I opened it and she jumped out. Almost have me a heart attack." Tom said.

"This sounds like something that happened to Alexx a few years ago." Eric said.

"Yeah, the girl who was to cold that the EKG couldn't register any heartbeats." Frank said.

"She wasn't cold. This girl's COD was unknown because I hadn't done an autopsy yet." Tom said.

"What's her name?" Ryan asked.

"Lily Stetler."

"What?" Everyone gasped, "Stetler?"

"Yes, Lily Stetler."

"Could she be a sister to Rick Stetler?" Eric asked.

"Probably. When did she come in?" Ryan asked.

"Four hours ago. She was dead. I didn't screw up!"

"We know Tom. I think this is a case of the classical blow fish poisoning." Natalia said, "If you give enough poison to a person you can put them in a coma that will make them appear dead, but they're really not. It's like they're in a coma."

"Yeah, I remember we have a case like that once and the guy scared the shit out of Ryan when he suddenly woke up in the morgue." Eric smirked.

Ryan rolled his eyes, "I was just a little spooked."

"Spooked enough to hide behind Alexx." Frank teased.

"Anyway! Let's not tell Rick about his sister. I'm sure he has something to do with it." Ryan said, "Let's just focus on finding Lily and Frank and Walter should have another little talk with Julio about this."

"You think Lily is a part of this?" Natalia asked.

"Yeah, she has to be. Her brother works for IAB in the same department as H, it's not a coincidence." Ryan said.

**-I-**

"Lily Stetler." Frank said, "She's dead."

"Oh what a shame." Julio sighed.

"She worked for you right?" Walter asked.

"Yes."

"With what?" Walter asked.

"Just some business. She was a tough woman with no limits. Sometimes she took too many risks, but she got the job done." Julio said, "It's a shame she's gone."

"Yeah you seem really heart-broken about it." Frank snorted, "Unfortunately Lily woke up."

"Woke up? You said she was dead."

"She was dead too. But she had just taken some blow fish poison. She woke up less than thirty minutes ago and escaped from the morgue." Frank smirked, "How come you wanted her to play dead?"

"She had a job to do." Julio said, giving up.

Julio knew that if his boss wasn't arrested then he wouldn't be able to rest in peace. As much as he was grateful for the money that his boss handed him, it also pained him to see such a monster have so much power and not get caught. The good side of Julio wanted to help the police solve the case, but the other part didn't. Julio decided to simply help them on the way to the truth, but not reveal too much.

"What kind of a job?" Frank asked.

"She was going to play dead, have the coroner register her as dead and then commit a crime. If she was dead, she wouldn't have been able to commit a crime in the eyes of the law." Julio said, "Lily is clumsy sometimes and leaves behind too much evidence. It's why her rap sheet is longer than her hair. She was the best person for the job, but I wanted to minimize the risk of her getting caught by having her die."

"What was she supposed to do?" Frank asked.

"Kill you and Dt. Delko." Julio smirked, "And if she failed, she was supposed to give you all a little warning to back down."

Before Frank or Walter could say anything, there was a loud explosion coming from the garage.

"Watch him!" Frank shouted at an officer and left with Walter.

They ran down to the garage where they found Ryan and Eric staring at the hummers, which were all blown up.

"What the fuck happened?" Frank asked.

"We were going to take a ride to Lily's apartment and the hummers just blew up." Ryan said.

"Julio said that Lily's job was to kill you and me." Frank said, "And if that didn't work she was going to give is a warning to back down."

"Well, the warning was heard loud and clear." Ryan sighed, "We're just not going to listen. Frank, you and Eric should stay inside so that Lily can't harm you out here."

Frank and Eric nodded and went back inside. They waited by the elevators and watched Walter and Ryan out the fire out with some fire extinguishers as he bomb squad the fire department arrived.

"Ryan, we're stepping on somebody's toes. We're getting to close to the truth according to Mr. Crime." Walter said.

"Think we should back down?" Ryan asked.

"No, but we should all get some protection now that…"

Walter's body jerked as a bullet entered his head and he fell down on the ground dead. Ryan shook him and shouted his name as everyone around him got down on the ground to protect themselves from more bullets. No more bullets came and the EMT's started working on saving Walter.

"Hang on Walter! Don't die on me!" Ryan demanded.

_**TBC…**_

**Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

Ryan sat with his head in his hands and just waited for some time to pass. Walter had been taken to the hospital but had been dead by the time the ambulance reached the ER. Ryan had watched as the paramedics had tried to save his friend. He may not have known Walter for a very long time, but he had liked from their first meeting. Walter and he could laugh together and make fun of each other without crossing the line. Walter was a man that would be dearly missed by those who knew him. A man with a personality such as Walter's was not always easy to find.

"Horatio woke up." A female voice said next to Ryan.

Ryan didn't have to look up to know who it was. He should have known Natalia would find him in the lonely corner that he was sitting in. He had gone to the corner to be alone, but he was glad that Natalia was there.

"Good." Ryan mumbled.

With Horatio awake the case might finally crack.

"Well, there is still a problem." Natalia said, "He's under heavy doses of pain killers so he's sleeping a lot."

"He could still tell us something." Ryan said, "I have to call Walter's parents."

"I can do that if you want to."

"No, I have to. They've met me. They know me pretty well and I want to tell them. It's better that I do it then someone they've never met."

Natalia nodded and gave Ryan a comforting hug. Ryan sighed heavily. Things had gone bad so quickly. Now that Horatio had woken up hope had been restored and Ryan could feel that the team was about to crack the case. But even if they did, they wouldn't be able to celebrate it. Not after having lost so many fellow officers and friends. But with their killer caught at least they could rest in peace.

"How is Calleigh doing?" Ryan asked.

"Good. She's worried and wants to come home soon, but she's doing fine."

Ryan nodded and then stood up. Natalia understood that he was going to call Walter's parents when the pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. She went to the room in which Walter still laid. She lifted the covers and caressed Walter's cheek. It was hard to believe that Walter was really gone. He was always so full of life.

"Watch over us up there Walter, especially Ryan. He needs it." Natalia whispered and placed the sheet back over Walter's face.

**-I-**

The news of Walter's death hit everyone hard. Calleigh would never forget the look in Horatio's eyes when she told him. She knew he was blaming himself. Just like he did with Speed and Raymond. Horatio always believed that he could have done something to stop all those things that harmed or killed the people he loved and cared for.

"It's my fault." Horatio said hoarsely.

"Horatio, stop. You couldn't have done anything to prevent this. It was a sniper that killed Walter."

"But I started this whole thing. Me and Agent Spackler."

"How?"

"We started an investigation against the Mayor's staff. Someone was stealing money… Spackler had got a name the same day he was shot. We were supposed to meet that night and go over our information." Horatio said and then yawned.

"Horatio, save your strength." Calleigh said, but also knew that the information he gave her was very important, "Did you know Jesse was dirty?"

"No, we only had our eyes set on two people, Julio Riaz… and…" Horatio's voice trailed off and he was fast asleep.

Calleigh pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Ryan.

**-I-**

"So somebody stole money from the Mayor and H and Spackler were checking in to it, whoever it is got nervous and decided to take them out." Eric said.

"Where do we fit in to this?" Natalia asked.

"Maybe the person thought we knew what it was about. But H never told us." Ryan said and rubbed his tired eyes.

"Somebody that works for the Mayor and has a connection with Julio Riaz is doing this." Frank said, "But it's going to take forever to find out if Julio doesn't tell us."

"Srgt. Tripp, you just got a call to go to a crime scene in the Glades with Dt. Eric." Paula, the receptionist said.

"This is what Julio was talking about. Lily Stetler was ordered to kill us. She's faking a crime scene." Frank smirked, "And we'll get her because of it."

The team left the lab and called for backup as they went to the place in the Glades that the crime scene was supposed to be at. Only Frank and Eric went to the exact location that the scene was at. Everybody else stayed further behind waiting.

"There's supposed to be a body here Frank." Eric said loud and clear.

Not too loud, but loud enough for Lily Stetler to hear if she was hiding close by.

"And here it is. It's a doll though." Frank sighed, "This is what we came here for?"

"A burned doll." Eric said, "Somebody's playing a game."

"You got that right!" Lily yelled as she jumped up from the ground and launched herself at Frank with a big knife.

Frank quickly got out of the way and Eric knocked Lily down from behind. Once she was on the ground, Frank cuffed her and tried to pull her up on her feet. However, Lily was kicking fiercely with her legs and Frank growled as she kicked him on the leg.

"My brother will get you all for this!" Lily growled.

Eric frowned and then grabbed Lily's collar. He pulled her up to her feet and waved for their backup to approach.

"My brother will make the Chief agree to my release!" Lily smirked, "I'll be out before you know it!"

Lily continued screaming as she was put in one of the cars and driven back to the PD.

"What the hell was all that about?" Natalia asked, "Rick is a part of this?"

"Why am I not surprised." Frank muttered, "Rick and the Chief are both a part of this."

"Though it seems as if the Chief is the innocent one of the two." Eric said, "Ryan?"

"We have to interrogate Lily, make her tell us everything. Find a weakness that she has." Ryan said.

"If she doesn't have one then?" Natalia asked.

"Everybody has a weakness. I'm pretty sure Rick is one of them." Ryan smirked, "Lily is about to learn to never mess with cops after being part of a game that killed several officers."

Eric and Frank looked at each other and smirked. A pissed off Ryan was not good for criminals.

Once back at the PD Lily was waiting in the one of the interrogation rooms. Ryan and Eric stood behind the two-way mirror watching her immature behavior. She had the attitude of a teenage girl that would do anything to piss off her parents. Natalia had done some research of Lily Stetler and she was the youngest of the Stetler's siblings, she was also the one with the rap sheet and the former drug addiction. She also had the biggest weakness of the two Stetler siblings. Rick still had no idea that his sister had been arrested. In fact Rick hadn't been seen since he had talked to Jesse shortly before Ryan had found out that Jesse was dirty.

"I'm glad I'm not Lily right now." Eric said.

"So am I, you wouldn't look good with blond hair and boobs." Ryan joked.

Eric rolled his eyes.

"I meant being a suspect in one of your interrogations. You're pretty scary when you're pissed Ryan." Eric said.

"I learned that from H."

"Only you raise your voice more than he."

"Yeah, but the whole death glare-thing is something I learned from him. And believing that I will be able to bring the suspect down. I feel confident when I'm interrogating someone and that is one of the most important things in interrogation." Ryan said.

"You're right, it is." Eric smiled, "Now let's show Lily how evil we can be."

Ryan smirked and he and Eric entered the room. Lilly immediately started yelling about how her brother could get her out and how cops sucked.

"You motherfuckers better have more than just that stupid attack on that fat, bald cop to bring me in here!" Lily growled, "Did I mention I suffer from hallucinations? I thought that cop was a bear man."

"Sure you did." Eric said.

"I did! You think I'm lying dick-face! I'm not a stupid bitch." Lily yelled.

"Lily!" Ryan growled and Lily shut up.

"How old are you really?" Ryan asked.

"30. Doesn't it say that in your papers?" Lily asked and nodded towards the file that Ryan was holding.

"It does, but with words like that you act more like you're 16." Ryan said.

"Like I give a fuck about you think!"

"Lily!" Eric said, "Calm down okay."

"Whatever." Lily sighed and slumped back in the chair.

"Alright, this is what we now; you work for Julio Riaz and was hired to kill St. Delko and Srgt. Tripp. You were also hired to give us all a warning and therefore you blew up our hummers. Julio told us this."

Lily just snorted.

"We also found your fingerprints on the remains on the bombs under the hummers." Eric said.

"Did you also shoot Dt. Walter Simmons with a sniper rifle?" Ryan asked.

"Who the fuck is that?"

"It's a cop that died less than four hours ago. He was shot after the hummers had exploded. It sounds too convenient for that to be a coincidence." Ryan growled.

"I didn't shot any cop. I only do as I'm told." Lily said, "If another cop died then I didn't do it."

"How does your brother fit in to all of this?" Eric asked.

"I don't know." Lily smirked.

Ryan sighed and placed a photo of a small boy in front of Lily. It's was her four-year-old son Jasper.

"Joseph Ratner's daughter is already in Brazil because he didn't cooperate from the beginning. We put her on a plane there and she'll become a sex slave soon." Ryan growled, "What makes you think I won't do the same your son?"

"He's only four!"

"Ratner's daughter Christine is only 15." Eric said.

"You can't do that kind of shit!" Lily exclaimed.

"No one will be able to prove that I did anything. How often do you see your son? He lives with his father and your only have the right to see him once a month." Ryan said, "Does he really matter so much to you? Wouldn't you send him to Brazil instead of coming clean?"

Lily shook her head, "Uh uh, no way."

"No way what?" Eric asked.

"I can't be a snitch."

"Then your son is going on a plane." Ryan said.

He grabbed the picture and stood up with Eric. The truth was that Christine wasn't anywhere near Brazil since Ratner had decided to come clean instead. But Lily didn't know that.

"Wait! Wait!" Lily yelled, "I'll do it."

Ryan and Eric turned around and sat down again.

"Talk." Ryan demanded.

"You already know about the deal with Julio."

"Yes, it's Rick we're interested about."

"This Mr. Crime guy hired Rick to get something bad on Chief. The Chief had to choose if he wanted to help you with the case and be exposed or stay away and save his marriage and reputation." Lily sighed, "Rick has pictures of the Chief having sex with another man. The Chief is married."

"Does the Chief know about the investigation against the Mayor's staff?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. That's why Mr. Crime wanted him to stay away." Lily said, "That's all I know."

**-I-**

Rick had been caught after the Chief had agreed to wear a wire as Rick reminded him of their deal. However, Rick refused to talk. It now all depended on what Horatio could tell the team and what Cooper found out from the tape.

"Agent Spackler and Horatio got a tip from someone that the Mayor's financial manager was stealing money from the Mayor's account." The Chief said, "Horatio and Spackler started investigating. Spackler apparently found out that out. Horatio found out who the money was sent do and what they did. Julio Riaz got the money to finance his drug business and Brazil and Miami."

"How did they know that they were being investigated?" Ryan asked.

"I told the Mayor. He must have overheard the conversation. The same day that Horatio was shot was the day that I was going to make the investigation official."

"Why weren't we told?" Ryan asked.

"Because Horatio knew that there was risk that this could end in a blood bath. He knew it was safer if you didn't know about it until it was official. And besides, I told him and Spackler not to tell anyone until they were certain that they had a case."

"Who is the person stealing money?" Eric asked.

"It's Trey Nevins!" Cooper said from the doorway.

"What?" Everyone but the Chief exclaimed.

"Trey Nevins. Rebecca Nevins father. I matched the voice from the phone calls to a tape with an interview of Trey with ABC. It's a match. And the anonymous caller that made the tip about him is his own daughter." Cooper said, "Trey Nevins is also a former marine. He was a sniper."

"What are we waiting for? Let's arrest the son of a bitch." Ryan said.

The team stood up and it didn't take long to gather a whole army of officers willing to be there when the monsters who killed their friends was arrested. As they arrived at the Mayor's officer they were told that they were all in a budget meeting. Ryan had never enjoyed being such a killjoy as when he and Eric marched in to the room and arrested Trey Nevins in front of all his colleagues.

"Trey Nevins you are under arrest for the murder and attempted murder of several police officers. And for pissing me off." Ryan smirked and handcuffed Trey.

Trey smirked as he was being lead out of the room.

"You don't have anything to charge me with." He said.

"Don't be so sure about that." Eric said.

"You guys should have worn bullet-proof vests." Trey smirked and threw himself to the ground just as several shots were heard.

_**TBC…**_

**Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

Ryan groaned in pain as he felt the bullet rip through his shoulder and he fell down on the ground. The officers un-holstered their guns and crawled to the ground. After ten shots everything went silent and then Trey started laughing like a maniac.

"I should have hired a better shooter." He smirked.

Ryan stood up and got ready to give Trey a beating of a life-time, but Eric's hand on his un-injured shoulder stopped him.

"Ryan, let an officer give you a ride to the hospital. You need to check your wound." Eric said.

"I am not leaving. I want to interrogate this son of a bitch!" Ryan growled, not looking at Eric.

Eric was about to protest when Ryan gave him a glare.

"I need to do this." He said.

"Let him do it Dt. What harm can come out of it?" Trey chuckled, but was well aware of the wincing that the officers did when he said that.

"If you don't tell me what I need to hear, then you're going to wish you had never been born." Ryan smirked.

An hour later Ryan, Eric and Trey were gathered in an interrogation room. Frank and Natalia stood behind the two-way-mirror watching. They could see the pain Ryan was in, but he ignored it. He wanted to be there when he got the son of a bitch responsible for everything to confess to his crimes.

"You work for the Mayor as a financial manager. And you've not only been skipping taxes, but you've also sent money to Julio Riaz so that he could use it for his drug business in Brazil and Miami." Ryan said and winced in pain, "You knew that Lt. Caine and Agent Spackler had figured it out so you ordered a hit on them."

"Prove it." Trey smirked.

"Well, we can. We have photos taken from Agent Spackler that show you and Julio meeting and exchanging money." Eric said, although it wasn't completely true.

Yes, there were photos of Julio and Trey meeting, but all they did were to shake hands and talk. However, Trey's smirk faded as he started to realize that they had enough evidence to put him away for a long time.

"Can I get a deal?" Trey asked.

"Feeling insecure about how safe you are?" Ryan taunted and then clenched his teeth in pain.

Eric put a supportive hand on his shoulder, he didn't feel good about Ryan interrogating someone when he hadn't slept or even eaten in days, not to mention he had been shot.

"Get me a deal and I'll tell you everything you want to know." Trey said.

"Well, the state attorney, who happens to be your daughter, has refused to make a deal. But we do have other people we can ask." Ryan smirked.

"Like who?"

"Rick Stetler just to mention one." Eric said.

Ryan and Eric left as Trey muttered something incoherent. They were not about to let that monster walk out of that room with a deal.

"That went well. How do we get Rick to speak?" Natalia asked.

"I don't think it'll be a problem once he knows we have enough to charge Trey with murder and attempted murder and got knows what else." Ryan sighed.

"Great, now will you please go to the hospital?" Eric asked.

"Eric…."

"No Ryan! You've been shot. We've already lost one team member and I will not just watch as you slowly bleed to death."

"I'll go with you." Natalia said, "Don't argue with us Ryan. Now it's time for you to take a moment to slow down. Let us handle the rest for now."

"Fine. But only to be checked up." Ryan said.

"Only to be checked up. We're not going to force you to stay overnight." Natalia nodded.

**-I-**

Ryan winced in pain as he lay in bed at the hospital. The doctor was waiting for the x-ray results and in the meantime Ryan had to wait in a private room. He had been given pain killers, but they didn't seem to help much. Ryan had never quite realized before how much the team really meant to him until Horatio had been shot. He had never thought he'd be so scared about losing his boss and colleagues. But they were a part of Ryan's family and Ryan protected his family as much as he could. He had done a bad job of protecting them lately. He couldn't even protect Walter when he got shot.

"You seem to be doing some heavy thinking." Natalia smiled as she sat down next to Ryan and handed him a cup of coffee.

"I couldn't protect Walter when he got shot." Ryan whispered and took a sip of the coffee, "Not H or Cal either."

"Ryan, we can't foresee things like this. We can't protect everyone every minute of the day either." Natalia said.

"Is it really that simple? Just accept the fact that in the end you can't do anything about it anyway. That it's out of your control?" Ryan snapped.

"Yes! It's the only way to stay sane." Natalia said, "When was the last time you slept?"

"Since before this case." Ryan yawned, "I can't sleep until I know that Trey is really behind bars. Until this case is over."

"It is over. We have some final interrogations to deal with, but the case is closed. We can charge everyone involved and no one will ever be free again. They don't deserve it." Natalia sighed, "Can you believe we've worked with a man who all this time was a criminal? I mean, Stetler could have killed Horatio or any of us a million times. He's had so many chances."

"It wasn't his job to kill H." Ryan said, "I had for sure thought you would have brought up Jesse instead of Rick."

"I have thought about Jesse. When we find I'm going to kick his ass." Natalia growled, "But the situation with him also scares me. I trusted him. We all did and how did that work out? He was there when H got shot. He was against us all along."

"Well, I'm glad that I can trust you, Eric, Calleigh, Cooper and Horatio and Tom." Ryan smiled and then yawned.

His eyes started to close and Natalia smiled. Before she had a chance to say anything else, Ryan was fast asleep. Natalia sighed in relief.

"I must have slipped the worst sleeping pill in your coffee ever. It took ages for you to fall asleep." Natalia chuckled, "Goodnight Ryan."

Natalia gave Ryan a kiss on the cheek before she sat back down in the chair and read a newspaper while Ryan finally got some of the sleep his body and mind had been craving for days.

**-I-**

"My job was to make the Chief stay away from you guys. Make him unable to tell you why Horatio had been shot." Rick explained to Frank and Eric.

As expected it wasn't hard to make Rick flip around and tell the truth once he found out that Trey had been arrested. Lily had also told her part of everything, but now it was Rick's turn. Surprisingly Lily, Julio and Rick were all prepared to testify against Trey. Apparently they weren't as loyal to him as he thought.

"I followed the Chief to a motel and took photos of him having sex with a man. I knew he wouldn't want that to come out since he's married to a woman."

"And then what?" Frank asked.

"Then I stayed with the Chief until you arrested me. I made sure he couldn't call you or slip you any messages." Rick said.

"Tell us about how Trey organized this." Eric said.

"Trey knew he would get arrested if he didn't stop Spackler, Caine and the Chief. Well, you already know what I was ordered to do. Trey ordered Julio to get rid of Caine, while Trey himself killed Spackler. Julio knew that Joseph Ratner had better connections with criminals than he did, so he hired Ratner."

"And Ratner hired the gang and Jesse Cardoza?" Frank asked.

"Jesse has worked for Ratner for years. But yes, the gang members shot each other to create a crime scene for Caine to investigate with Jesse. All Jesse had to do was to make sure that Caine didn't get any help. But Caine is stronger than one might think." Rick said, "Lily was ordered to, as you know, kill you two. "

"Yeah, we know all about her job." Frank said.

"Jesse's second job was to kill Wolfe and Boa Vista." Rick sighed, "He was supposed to murder them when they were alone with his own choice of weapon. He talked about raping Natalia before killing her."

Frank and Eric both got very angry from hearing this. The Jesse they had known would never have done anything like that.

"Who was the shooter that shot Ryan today?" Frank asked.

"Some low-life that Trey hired. You can find him and everybody else at a wear-house." Rick smirked and wrote down the address.

"What are they doing there?" Eric asked.

"They're doing nothing." Rick said.

"It's funny how you all start singing like canary birds when you want to save your own skin." Frank said, "But it doesn't make what you did right."

Rick just shrugged. Eric and Frank nodded for an officer to cuff Rick and bring him to a holding cell, while the two of them went to the wear-house. The sight that they met there was a horrible one. The people who had attacked the PD and Calleigh were shot to death while trying to escape further down the room. Jesse was also lying dead on the floor. As was the man who would later be identified as the man that show Ryan.

"Trey killed them."

"He couldn't have." Frank said, "That guy isn't a part of the gang and he's been shot at close range."

"Then he killed them and then shot himself." Eric sighed, "So many lives lost and for what?"

"For justice." Frank shrugged, "At least I want it to be for justice."

"Let's call in the night shift so they can process. We've done our part." Eric said, "Case closed."

**-I-**

Three weeks later the team was gathered to watch as their friend Walter was being lowered in to the ground in his casket. His parents were crying as they got a flag. Horatio glanced at Ryan, who looked like something was bothering him. Horatio was so proud of his team, but especially Ryan. The young man had worked so hard to find justice for the victims and to find the man responsible for the deaths of the officers who had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Horatio saw so much of himself in Ryan. The same thirst for justice, the same compassion and of course they both tried to save the world even though deep inside they knew they couldn't save everyone.

When the casket was in the ground, people started to leave slowly. Ryan stayed. He looked at the casket as dirt was being thrown on it. Horatio also stayed. But he didn't watch the casket, he watched the young man next to him.

"You did everything you could Ryan." Horatio said.

Ryan turned to face the red head.

"I failed him."

"So did I. I wasn't here."

"You were at the hospital H."

"And therefore I wasn't here. I know it's hard to understand, but you really did everything you could Ryan. Walter was shot by a sniper; there is no way for you to prevent that. We both know how difficult it is to find a sniper."

"I know H."

"You're so much like me Ryan. You and I both want to save everyone."

"But we can't."

"But it doesn't make us want it any less. We both feel guilty over things we can't even control." Horatio sighed, "Ryan, I am very proud over you. How you handled the case."

"Thanks H." Ryan blushed.

"Only next time, don't forget to eat and sleep."

"I hope there won't be a next time like this." Ryan said.

"Me too, Ryan, me too." Horatio said and surprised Ryan by pulling him in to a hug.

Ryan smiled and hugged back. The rest of the team was waiting for them by the entrance to the church. When the two men returned, they received hugs from their friends.

"Lt. Caine." A male voice said.

Horatio turned around to face his boss. Chief Warner.

"Chief Warner."

"Ex-Chief Warner actually."

That got everyone's attention. Chief Warner had been a very good boss, so to hear that he wasn't Chief anymore was a surprise to the team.

"Ex?" Horatio asked.

"Yes. I've chosen to retire. It's my time to go. And I know I've asked you before and you've always said no, but… would you be interested in becoming Chief? Starting on Monday."

Horatio smiled and thought for a moment.

"Yes, I would like that."

Both the team and the Chief were surprised to hear this.

"It's my time." Horatio smiled, "Can I choose who will take over the lab by myself?"

"Of course." Warner smiled, "Although I think I know who it is already."

Horatio knew what Warner was thinking, but he was going to surprise him. After he had had a talk with his blond ballistic expert a few days ago about the future he wasn't feeling like he betrayed her by his choice.

"I choose Ryan Wolfe." Horatio smiled.

Ryan looked shocked at his boss, while he team cheered and congratulated him. Ryan smiled and gave his red headed boss a hug.

"Wow, thanks H!" He grinned, "But why me?"

"Well, you showed that you're great leader from what I hear when you investigated my shooting and the case. You've grown a lot Ryan and you are a born leader." Horatio smiled, "I would be honored to have you take my place in the lab."

"No H, it's I that should feel honored." Ryan grinned, "But what about Calleigh?"

Calleigh had always been Horatio's second in command and Ryan had expected her to take his place.

"We talked a few days ago about the future and I'm actually thinking about going down to part-time when the baby is born." Calleigh smiled, "I would still love to be your second in command though Ryan."

"Of course." Ryan smiled, "Are you sure it's okay?"

"Yes Ryan, in fact I think you'll make a better Lt than me."

"Now that's not true." Ryan said.

"She hates paperwork." Eric said and Calleigh giggled.

"Ah yes, the paperwork." Horatio smiled, "Well Ryan, I should warn you that most of the paperwork comes in on Mondays."

"You saved that part for last huh?"

"Yeah." Horatio smirked, "Well, team why don't we get out of here and have a toast for Walter."

"Sounds like a great plan!" The team agreed.

Months later Calleigh gave birth to her and Eric's daughter Zoey. Horatio was chosen to be the godfather.

**The End!**

_**AN: Thanks to everyone who has read and /or reviewed! And keep your eyes open for the sequel!**_


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